Four attempted murder cases on court docket Friday

Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge will work though a 47-page criminal docket on Friday that includes arraignments for several people indicted in the most recent grand jury session, hearings for new and old cases and court costs-related issues.

Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge will work though a 47-page criminal docket on Friday that includes arraignments for several people indicted in the most recent grand jury session, hearings for new and old cases and court costs-related issues.

Four cases on the docket are attempted murder cases involving, in one case, the arraignment of three people recently indicted on charges of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated kidnapping and theft. In two other hearings, Elledge will hear a bond-related issue involving an attempted first-degree murder case and the status of yet another.

Raymond Randolph Lane, 48, Dorothy Roxanne McFarland, 51, both of Clinton, and David Lee Suddeth, 43, of Lake City, were indicted on Dec. 4 for the alleged scheme to murder 73-year-old Luther Byrge at his home on Old Lake City Highway, Clinton, in January. They reportedly set Byrge's house on fire in the murder attempt to get his land and life insurance.

According to records, Lane planned the plot and he and Suddeth set the fire, cut phone lines, removed smoke detectors and locked the bedroom door while Byrge slept.

Records said Lane and McFarland are Byrge's stepchildren and Suddeth is McFarland's boyfriend.

Lane reportedly stole power tools to sell while McFarland took the pet cat from the home to keep it from getting burned. McFarland reportedly was to receive $1,000 from Byrge's life insurance.

The fire burned itself out and Byrge was not injured. However, Anderson County deputies investigated the fire and determined gasoline was used as an accelerant, and later charged the trio. They have been held in the Anderson County jail since February.

A bond hearing is also set for Friday in a case involving 22-year-old Damian Lamar Ellis, 556 West Outer Drive, who was indicted in February 2011 on a attempted first-degree murder charge, as well as possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and aggravated assault. The court docket lists the hearing as bond reduction/revocation.

Ellis is accused of shooting William Taavian Booker, 24, on the sidewalk outside of Booker's house on South Benedict Avenue.

Records indicate the shooting came after an altercation. Ellis reportedly left the area after the initial confrontation and came back with a 9mm handgun and shot Booker. He told officers he fired "a warning shot" into the air, but Booker ran toward him and he fired several more times.

Booker was shot in the upper chest/shoulder area and was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville.

Ellis was on supervised state probation at the time of the shooting, stemming from a cocaine conviction.

The other hearing on Friday involves the status of a first-degree murder case involving 32-year-old Joshua Allen Garrett and 23-year-old Roger Dale Ladd, both of Knoxville, who are accused of stabbing 26-year-old Shane Christopher Edwards outside of apartments on Utica Circle on July 4, 2010.

Page 2 of 2 - Edwards reportedly identified Garrett and Ladd. He told police Garrett grabbed him from behind and Ladd stabbed him, records said. Both men are still in the Anderson County jail.